Discovering Percy Jackson
by AnotherFacelessAuthor
Summary: When Piper's curiosity leads her to wanting to learn more about the famous Percy Jackson, she dares to ask the one person who can tell her best...Annabeth Chase. Basically, it's Annabeth regaling the tales of the Great Percy Jackson as only someone who was there for them all can do. One-Shot. Taking more one-shot requests. Growing Piper/Annabeth friendship, implied Percabeth.


**Gosh, it's been a while y'all! ;) I missed you!**

**Well, I felt like doing this and have been meaning to in a while, but gosh darn it's really long. I think I basically summarize the entire series in this story. **

**Well, I'm feeling like taking up writing some more one-shoats (But Finals are coming up so maybe not so much for the next two weeks, except maybe on weekends).**

**SO I WILL TAKE ONE SHOT REQUESTS AND THEN EITHER POST THEM AS INDIVIDUAL ONE-SHOTS OR POST THEM ON MY ONE-SHOT STORIES: In My Point of View or Aftermath**

**Please check those out and my other stories as well. :) **

**So, yeah, REVIEW!**

**Sorry for the obnoxious length!**

**READ ON!**

**Discovering Percy Jackson**

Piper, Jason, and Leo had been back from their quest for a week. Preparations for the Argo II were underway, powered by the engineering of Leo, and the intelligence and raw, desperate determination of Annabeth.

Piper couldn't help but feel a sympathetic kinship with the fierce blonde. Annabeth had shown Piper kindness when Piper discovered the falsity of her relationship with Jason. Now here Annabeth was, frantic for her boyfriend, who might not even remember her name, much less his feelings toward her. It would be enough to break anyone, but Annabeth was different. Annabeth was Annabeth. Fierce. Strong. Intelligent. Brave. Impenetrable. She was Annabeth, a name holding a meaning of its own, just as the name Percy Jackson seemed to.

In the short time Piper had been at Camp Half-Blood, she had heard her fill of the name Percy Jackson. In a lapse of thought, Piper had asked Drew about him, and got an hour lecture on his appearances. Bored after two minutes, Piper ignored most of it. She had asked others too, as had Jason (Leo was too preoccupied with the building of the Argo II), and she had gotten some good answers, she supposed, but they were all about what he did, not who he was.

"He went on his first quest at twelve," a kid from Apollo told her. "He was accused of stealing Zues's master bolt or something. He threw a hissy fit, threatened war, blamed it on Percy since he was 'illegal', 'course Zeus is a major hypocrite but whatever." He cut off when thunder boomed overhead.

"He has a tendency to befriend monsters," a girl from Demeter told her, sounding rather disgusted. "He has a cyclops half-brother and a pet hellhound. I guess I'm not really a big fighting demigod, but from what I understand, the rule with monsters is simple: See monster, kill monster. But he's Percy Jackson so I guess rules don't apply to him." She rolled her eyes and stormed off.

"He's a punk, but he's a good fighter. Maybe even great," a gruff Clarisse reluctantly admitted. "I mean, you gotta be to take down my dad, Ares, when you're twelve."

"He's totally reckless and totally impulsive. He went on two quests he wasn't even supposed to go on when he was...thirteen maybe? Though, his friends were in danger. The first one in the summer was for his satyr friend Grover, that winter he went on a quest for Annabeth," she heard from a kid of Hephaestus. "But I mean, she had gotten taken and from what I hear, it was his fault, so no way was he gonna take that lying down. Besides, this was when they got Nico and his sister was on that quest and Percy swore to protect her." He got quiet when Piper mentioned she hadn't heard that Nico had a sister.

"He's got the Curse of Achilles," a young starstruck daughter of Hermes told her. "He had to, in order to defeat Luke," she sighed. "If only I had been able to see him in action at the Battle of Manhattan. He was killer, I heard. Created a hurricane, fought not only Kronos but Hyperion and a whole lot of other monsters. Like the Minotaur, which he had already fought when he was twelve."

"He's got a great sense of humor, but unless you wanna see the pointy end of Riptide, his precious blade, do not put shaving cream in his bed," Travis Stoll told her earnestly, stressing this point in case she was tempted. "I mean, give him a chance, and he'll make some comment that'll have half the camp laughing and the other half rolling their eyes, but you mess with him, he'll go after you. Now, if you were to hurt someone he loved, he'd kill you twice over. And he has. Ask the Minotaur sometime."

All good info, amazing actually, to think one person did all of this. A modern day Hercules was what they called him, which seemed accurate. It seemed that any monster you could name, Percy's killed it at one point or another. Any recent battle, Percy was central. Any amazing feat? Well, Percy's been there and done that. It made Piper head spin, but also made her hungry for more information about who he was, who he really was, and she knew only one person who could give her that sort of knowledge.

So with a deep breath, and abiding sense of impending doom, she knocked on Cabin Six, home of the Children of Athena. No one answered, so she peeked inside, and sure enough, there Annabeth was. Piper stepped inside and didn't think she was being quiet, but Annabeth didn't react until the door slammed behind her.

Annabeth's head snapped up. She was sitting on her bed (identifiable as hers from the papers strewn across, the laptop even Piper knew not to touch, and the bulletin board hanging by it that was dominated by a map with certain regions crossed out, regions Annabeth had already searched for Percy) and had been staring down at something in her hands. She threw it next to her and stood. "What do you want?" She said, rather curt, but Piper didn't take it personally.

"I'm sorry, I knocked."

Annabeth nodded, seeming to relax slowly. Piper studied the girl. With a quick, casual glance, she seemed fine, but closer inspection showed another side of the seemingly-well-put-together daughter of Athena. Her blond hair was up, as it always was, but several strands were falling out and it appeared her hair was in need of a good washing. Her clothes were casual, shorts and a camp shirt, as she always wore, but Piper was sure she'd seen the same stain on the shirt she wore today as the one she wore yesterday. Her eye, cold and calculating, were also red and weary. Her hands were also fidgeting, as if her ADHD was acting up and she couldn't seem to settle. Her arms were crossed, which appeared to be a confident gesture, but Piper suspected she was really just trying to fold into herself, to become unseen.

Piper's eyes moved to Annabeth's bed, and her eyes latched onto what Annabeth had tossed to the side a moment ago. "Is that him?" She asked timidly, worried of her reaction. Annabeth paused, studying Piper, before nodding.

"Yeah. Yeah it is. Sort of. It's, um, an old picture." Piper was surprised when Annabeth bent down to retrieve the photo and handed it to her.

It was an old picture with bends and creases and a slight tear on one side. The focus of the photo were two kids, early middle school age, Piper guessed. A boy with raven hair and a girl with gray eyes. A young Percy and Annabeth, she guessed.

They had an arm over each other's shoulder, smiling. Annabeth held in her raised fist a flag, her grin triumphant, while Percy seemed to be laughing, a bronze sword tipped down to the ground in his other hand. Both were fitted in armor.

"We were twelve," Annabeth narrated, breaking Piper of her daze. "It was the first game of capture the flag after we got back from our quest. Our first quest, I should say," she amended.

"You seem close," Piper noted.

Annabeth nodded. "We were. I mean, you go through life and death experiences with someone, you're gonna grow closer." She chuckled. "Sort of surprised everyone else, though. When we left for that quest I couldn't stand him."

"Why?" Piper asked incredulously.

"Because he was a son of Poseidon," Annabeth said, laughing at her old reasoning. Piper couldn't help but notice the beauty in her smile. It seemed to take thousands of pounds of worry off of her shoulders. "There was a rivalry that I thought applied to Percy and I because we were the children of our parents, which is pretty weak reasoning. It didn't help that he was impulsive and idiotic and oblivious."

"So first you hated him, and then you were friends?"

"Basically, though there were plenty of bumps in the road," she told me, sitting down. "That quest was hard and exhilarating. I lived for the thrill and danger. How could I not? I'd lived at Camp Half-Blood since I was seven. I ran away from home," she explain when she saw Piper's incredulous expression. Piper vaguely recalled hearing a story about this. "I actually hadn't spoke to my family until Percy convinced me to try living with them again. He has this thing with family." Annabeth's voice was soft, her eyes far away. "Probably because he had the best mom ever who was stuck with the worst husband ever. He called him Smelly Gabe. Percy doesn't like talking about him, says I should be glad I never had the displeasure of meeting him, but his mom married him to protect Percy, to hide his demigod scent. Of course, he didn't know this until after his mom got taken by Hades." She smiled, returning her gaze to Piper's. "There's a lot about that first quest people don't know about." Piper sat across from Annabeth, awaiting eagerly to hear the story of Percy Jackson from the one most equipped to tell it.

"Percy was accused of stealing Zeus's Master Bolt, and he was claimed so he could retrieve it to prevent a feud of the gods, which would only end bloody, but if you want my opinion, I don't think Percy cared. Percy had just been introduced to this world, I'm not sure he grasped exactly what that meant. But Hades had taken Percy's mom as leverage. Unbeknownst to us at the time, his helm of darkness was also missing, but everyone just thought he took the Bolt, so they were going to send us to Hades, literally, to retrieve it. All Percy heard, I'm sure, is that he had a chance to save his mom, so he and I and our friend Grover set out for Hades, each with our own reasons. But when it came down to it, when we were in the underworld facing Hades, we had the Bolt-that's a long story, but Hades didn't take it-Percy's mom, and three pearls to save us from the Underworld. Both Grover and I were offering to remain, we knew how much Percy wanted to save his mom, but he didn't. He swore to Hades he would retrieve his Helm of Darkness for the return of his mom, which he did after a battle with Ares who had been working for Kronos unknowingly."

It took a moment for Piper to realize Annabeth was done talking. "Dear gods..."

Annabeth laughed. "Don't sound so impressed. He didn't know what he was doing during...any of it. If you want evidence, ask the Stolls for a tape from the Thrill Ride O' Love, I'm sure they got a copy of it somehow, somewhere." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "And in that one quest, he got Zeus, Hades, and Ares on his bad side. Did you know he mailed the head of Medusa to Olympus. It was...impulsive, but he was trying to prove himself...or prove he didn't belong to them, work for them, I'm not sure, but they ended up sending it back." Annabeth grinned, and it was an evil smile. "Completely unrelated, but after that quest, his mom became a one-hit-wonder in the world of sculpture with a stone statue who remarkably resembled her recently missing husband."

Piper laughed with wide eyes. "Are you serious?"

Annabeth waved off her concern. "Oh, he deserved it. From what I heard, he was the worst person ever to Percy's mom, who is the best person ever. Besides, because of him, Percy was the subject of a nation wide manhunt which severely messes with a quest, let me tell you."

"All this when he was twelve?"

"Percy has a knack for getting in trouble," she said light-heartedly, but her face darkened as she realized the full meaning behind her words, and their connection to her current misery.

Piper, eager for the return of a laughing, smiling Annabeth, moved the conversation forward. "Now, what was this about him not being allowed on his second quest?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, immediately annoyed. "That was the summer Thalia's tree had been poisoned. You know that story right? Well, a few days earlier," she continued after Piper nodded, "Percy had had a dream-a demigod dream where it's real, you know?-about Grover and him being in trouble. Grover was looking for the Pan, the Lost God, as all satyrs did back then."

"Back then?" Piper questioned.

"That's a later story. During the Labyrinth Quest. Anyway," Annabeth continued, "we figured out Grover had been attracted to the Golden Fleece and been lured to the island of the cyclops of Polyphemus who had been the destruction of countless satyrs. Grover survived by pretending to be a lady cyclops whom Polyphemus wished to marry."

For a moment, Piper stared at Annabeth, waiting for the just kidding! But it never came. "Wait...really?" Annabeth nodded, barely containing her own laughter. Piper lost it then, and Annabeth did as well, and the two girls laughed so loud and hard that a few people outside cast curious glances to the cabin of Athena.

"Hey, it worked," Annabeth commented, barely able to speak through her laughs. "But he did look ridiculous in that dress." This lead to a conversation to how great it would've been if Annabeth had had a camera.

"So wait," Piper said after their laughs died down. "I still don't get why Percy wasn't allowed on that quest."

Annoyance returned to Annabeth's expression. "With no one to blame for Thalia's poisoning, they blamed Chiron and threw him out, replacing him with Tantalus, a rotten guy if there ever was one. He got along great with Mr. D, though," she said, sounding snide. "And with those two as our valiant leaders, Clarisse got chosen to lead the quest, which didn't agree with Hermes."

"Hermes...like the God of Travel?"

"Father of Pranksters, Messenger of the Gods, yup, that very one. His son, Luke, the one who had actually stolen the Lightening Bolt the previous year, and, well, an old friend of mine," she added quietly, "was also after the Fleece, but for very different reasons. Hermes desired Luke's salvation and wanted Percy's help, so he sent him on the quest in the night along with his cyclops, half-brother, Tyson and myself. Tyson and I didn't get along very well. Cyclops..." she shuddered. "I had a bad history with them, but Tyson was good, it just took me a while to realize it."

"So you left on the quest to Polyphemus's Island?"

She nodded. "Right smack in the middle of the Sea of Monsters, also known as the Bermuda Triangle to mortals. It was dangerous and there were complications. Sea Monsters, Hydras, Clarisse when we caught up to her, Tyson, a sorceress who gave me a make over and turned Percy into a guinea pig..." She drifted off, smiling at Piper. "Yeah, that happened. Not so funny then, hilarious now."

"Was he cute?" She couldn't help but asking, trying so hard to keep from cracking up.

Annabeth nodded, showing the same strained restraint. "Very, but using a gift of Hermes, we were able to heal him. Eventually, we reached the Island," she said hastily, making Piper guess she was skimming over some parts she didn't want to share, but Piper didn't press her, "and were able to retrieve the fleece with much difficulty. I mean, I was sort of unconscious for part of it at the end..." she grimaced. "The Fleece healed me though and I was fine, clearly. Percy sent the Fleece back with Clarisse and a few days later, Thalia came back to life, which was amazing. She's a lot like Percy in a lot of ways."

"So they got along well?"

Annabeth barked a laugh. "Oh, no. We went on a job to go bring some demigods to Camp, the Di Angelos, and I sort of ended up getting taken. But supposedly Thalia blamed Percy and was vocal about it, and I"m sure Percy blamed himself. He always does. I heard there was an incident during capture the flag that ended up with an electrocuted Percy and a completely drenched Thalia. When a quest was called to save not only me, but Artemis, Thalia was chosen instead of Percy, which was not okay with him, I guess," she tucked piece of hair behind her ear

"I can imagine, Percy sounds pretty loyal."

Annabeth snorted, for some reason Piper didn't understand. "Well, yeah, It's not his fatal flaw for no reason."

"Oh..." Piper said, unsure how to respond. "So what happened on the quest?"

Annabeth sighed. "Unfortunately, if you want Percy's side of the story, I'm not the best equipped in this circumstance. I was taken to Mt. Tam and was tricked by-by Luke," she stammered, "to hold up the sky, as was supposed to be the curse of Atlas."

"How...how did you hold up the sky?"

Annabeth began fingering a portion of her ponytail that was, upon close inspection by Piper, a duller shade than the rest of her hair. She vaguely recalled a conversation in the Aphrodite cabin about Annabeth having a gray streak in her hair, and whether it was fashion forward or a fashion disaster. She didn't remember most of it though because she was busy trying to ignore them all.

"It wasn't easy," Annabeth said bitterly. "It was like a cave was falling down on me, an unbelievable weight. Every second of it I was sure it would be too much for me and I wouldn't be able to hold it any longer and be crushed. Artemis was eventually taken to Mt. Tam, captive as well, and took the burden for me. During this time, Percy was, from what I understand, destroying a museum, going to Beaver Dam and getting hit with enchiladas, meeting Rachel Dare, meeting my mother, defending a male water-cow he named Bessie, meeting Apollo, running from giant pigs, getting coffee, fighting with Thalia and Zoe, meeting my dad and stepmom, and coming to my and Artemis's rescue, though perhaps not exactly in that order."

Piper just blinked. "I understood like none of that."

Annabeth shrugged. "It was a weird quest, apparently. For starters, he met both of my parents, as I said."

"Oh...?" Piper prompted.

"I think my dad liked him. He was trying to save my life. My mom..." Annabeth winced. "Well, we're just thankful we're able to be in a relationship without her incinerating him. She's still rather bitter with the whole Poseidon rivalry."

"And he met Rachel, you said?"

"Yeah, apparently she sneezed and he thought she was a monster and tried to take her head off. Good news, she was mortal so she didn't die. Bad news, she could see through the mist so actually saw him try to take her head off, but she ended up helping him get away." Piper noticed some quiet tension in Annabeth's voice, but decided against pointing it out.

"So how did Percy save you?"

"Well, he, Grover, Thalia, and Zoe reached Mt. Tam. Luke tried to coax Thalia to kill "Bessie" whose death was foretold to bring the end of Olympus. At this point, Thalia was turning sixteen the next day. Everyone assumed she was the child of the prophecy. Thalia refused and it turned into this whole fight. But it wasn't going well for us. Percy knew we would need the help of a goddess, of Artemis, who was currently holding up the weight of the world...so he took it for her." Annabeth finally took notice that she was playing with her hair and sharply dropped it. "He took it with full knowledge of how excruciating it would be, but did it anyways. I was sort of tricked into doing it, he wasn't. Then my dad came on a plane, that was pretty epic, my dad is very bookish, I mean I am too, but he lacks..."

"Heroism." Piper supplied.

Annabeth gave a thin smile. "Prior to that, yes. But he was amazing then, and thanks to him we now have celestial bronze bullets."

"Then what happened?"

Annabeth's face darkened. "Unfortunately, Zoe Nightshade, Artemis's Lieutenant, and daughter of Atlas, was killed. She's now a constellation in the sky. Luke tumbled down the cliff and was presumed dead by everyone but me. Somehow, I knew he was alive."

"And you were right."

"Like always," Annabeth responded with a smirk. "We were all taken to Mt. Olympus then. Thalia became Artemis's new lieutenant, making her immortal the day before her sixteenth birthday, and therefore unlikely to be the prophesied child of the Big Three who was destined to make a decision that would save or destroy Olympus, making Percy, once again, the leading candidate. It wasn't until later that night that we discovered that Percy and Thalia weren't the only children of the Big Three alive. Unfortunately, Bianca, Nico's sister, had perished on the quest. Nico, when he found out, blamed Percy. He got angry and split the earth, making his heritage quite obvious. He was a son of Hades. Hades, it seemed, had also broken the oath to father no more children. Except we found out that Nico had spent around seventy years in the Lotus Casino Hotel, a place Percy, Grover, and I visited on our first quest. A place that made five days pass in a few hours, and many decodes in just a few years. Nico ran away after that day at Camp. We didn't hear from him for a year."

"The next summer. The summer of the Battle of the Labyrinth?"

Annabeth nodded. "During a game in the woods Percy and I accidently discovered an entrance into the Labyrinth from Camp, or, to put it more gravely, an entrance into Camp through the Labyrinth, bypassing all our monster wardings and protections. Clarisse and I had been studying the Labyrinth recently because we discovered that Luke was. We decided that a Quest was needed to find Daedalus, the creator of the great maze, in the Labyrinth to convince him to give us Adriane's string, which can lead you through the maze, instead of giving it to Luke. I was chosen to lead the quest. I was thrilled," Annabeth said bitterly. "I finally got a chance to really prove myself, to lead and to be a leader and not..." Annabeth trailed off, searching for the right words.

"Percy's sidekick?"

Annabeth glared. "I'm nobody's sidekick. But this was my first chance to really become a great Hero. I was a daughter of Athena, I reasoned, I could figure out anything. Except I got the one quest that literally has no answer. No information as to how to find Daedalus workshop. And once we were inside the maze it was obvious that it was much more complicated. The walls moved, directions changed, time was elastic, moving at an irregularly fast pace, none of it made senses, none of it was solvable with cleverness and intellectuality. I was frazzled. My...the prophecy I was given...didn't make me feel any better. I ended up breaking a pretty big rule and brought three people with me, making my team one of four instead of three. I brought Grover, Tyson, and P-Percy. Grover was convinced he could find Pan in the Labyrinth, Tyson was just a loyal friend and good fighter, and Percy...I couldn't imagine going without him even though..." Annabeth cut off, struggling over something.

"Everything seemed to go wrong. Very wrong. We found Nico only to lose him again. Percy and I ended up having to split away from Grover and Tyson so Grover could search for Pan. And then we went to Hephaestus, hoping for help. He said he would if only we helped him. If we went to one of his forges which was overrun by Telkhines, we discovered." Annabeth's voice became wavered and strained. "We got caught. There were too many. I had my cap which could turn the wearer invisible but that only works for one person. I wanted him to take it but he refused and I knew one of us had to get out and Percy wasn't going to take that hat so I left after I..." she licked her lips and closed her eyes for a moment. "I was probably half a mile away when I heard the explosion," she continued, more quietly. "I screamed, and when I realized what had happened, I cried. I eventually worked my way back to Camp. Two weeks passed. No sign of Percy while the mortals grappled for the reason behind the explosion of Mt. Saint Helens. Eventually Chiron called it. The burning of Percy's shroud was scheduled." Piper sat silent, dumbfounded. This wasn't Percy's first disappearance. Annabeth had had to watch the burning of Percy's shroud. She had once believed him dead.

"They asked me to say a freaking eulogy.," Annabeth said, laughing with detachment and glistening eyes. " And like the dumb seaweed brain he is, he walked in right in the middle of it. Just stood there on the beach watching us mourn his death. I saw him first and pointed at him, shouted. Everyone swarmed him, they were all so relieved. So of course I walked up to him and proceeded screaming at him."

"Where had he been?"

Annabeth pursed her lips. "Calypso's island. And it had taken him two weeks to come back."

Piper recalled the story of Calypso, the daughter of a titan who was cursed to isolation, made to fall in love with heroes who could never stay. Piper understood Annabeth's bitterness, but consoled her by saying, "But he came back."

Annabeth nodded, understanding that Piper was also saying that he would come back. "After that he said he realized what we needed in order to find Daedalus. A mortal who could see through the mist. And it just so happened that he knew one. He had first met her at Beaver Dam, when she helped him escape some skeleton warriors, and again at his Freshman orientation, when she covered for him when he started a fire while fighting empousa. Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

"You sound sour," Piper dared to vocally note.

Annabeth nodded. "We didn't get along very well at first. She was a total artist, and also a child of a billionaire. She was rebellious and artsy and freaking shouted to an entire restaurant that Percy and I were demigods. I'm not joking," Annabeth said, looking rather annoyed. "I admit, we acted sort of...catty. When the discussion of her covering for Percy at their school came up, and she said she acted dumb...I admit, I was not very pleasant." Piper stared at her, intrigued. Annabeth being catty and jealous? Piper would pay to see that. "I asked if it had been hard," Annabeth admitted after some prompting, cringing. Piper cracked up, thoroughly amused by this new side of Annabeth.

"Yeah well, I wasn't happy needing to use a mortal. I'd been so engulfed by the demigod world, I couldn't help but see a clear distinction, while Percy spent most of his life with mortals, so he didn't see the chasm that stood between our kind. He casually jumped across it on a near daily basis. Sure enough, though, when we get into the Labyrinth, Rachel can see a path to follow that we couldn't. With some, er, detours along the way, we reached Daedalus Labyrinth and discovered Daedalus was really our new sword fighting instructor. With some help of Nico and some poorly constructed wings, we were able to escape Luke's forces, but it was too late for our mission to be a success. Luke had the string. But, he...he wasn't Luke anymore." Annabeth sniffed. "He was Kronos. He had given his body to Kronos and we had seen his rising. Rachel even nailed him in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."

Piper wanted to laugh, but Annabeth had said it with such severity that she bit her tongue.

"When we got to camp, we prepared for war, and war did come. We only survived because of Grover. During this quest, we had found Pan...and watched him die."

"Die? But gods are immortal...aren't they?"

"Well, yes, but if they lose the will to be, if their domain is decimated...they simply...fade. Pan had blessed Grover, though. Said it was his job to rebuild the wilds. In the midst of the war, Grover unleashed to blessing of Pan, the Panic. All the monsters freaked out. During this, Daedalus sacrificed himself. His life was connected to that of the maze. If he died, so would the Labyrinth, he reasoned. With the flow of monster cut off, and Grover having disoriented them, we were able to win."

"Until the next summer. The summer of Percy's sixteenth birthday."

Annabeth nodded soberly. She began reciting the words of a propecy:

"A half-blood of the eldest gods

Shall reach sixteen against all odds

And see the world in endless sleep

A hero's soul cursed blade shall reap

A single choice shall end his days

Olympus to preserve or raze"

"Percy's prophecy," Piper said after Annabeth sat silent for many moments.

Annabeth shook her head. "Not just Percy's," she muttered. Annabeth shivered, and then seemed to pull herself out of her daze. "Percy first heard that prophecy after he came back from a mission to blow up Luke-Kronos's-ship. He blew up the ship, but at a cost. Luke-Kronos-survived, while Percy's partner in this mission, Charles Beckendorf, did not. Everyone like Beckendorf." Piper recalled hearing Leo talk about the old tales of beckendorf from Hephaestus cabin. "He was dating Silena Beauregard, the leader of the Aphrodite cabin at the time." Piper flinched. She had heard plenty about that particular daughter of Aphrodite from Drew.

Annabeth noted Piper's reaction. "Not a lot of people understood Silena's actions. When Percy came back I was so relieved, which made me feel guilty every time I looked at Silena," Annabeth continued on with her story. "And when Percy heard the prophecy, well, Chiron explained to Percy that this was why Percy was never allowed to hear the prophecy because it was tough enough without...well, I think Percy's words were something like 'without realizing I was going to die anyways?'" Annabeth took a deep breath. "He told everyone, basically, that so what if he died. I felt like someone punched me in the stomach."

"You loved him."

Annabeth nodded, looking down. "And I was finally starting to really realize it. I was trying to get Percy to notice to, but he was as oblivious as always. So, of course, we fought worse than ever. After one particularly nasty fight, in which Percy was trying to ask for advice from me about a dream he had about Rachel. It was a demigod dream that actually held importance, but I was blinded by the fact that he dreamt of another girl, of Rachel," Annabeth spat. Then she took another breath. "Rachel and I are great friends now, really we are, but back then...gods I hated her. That fight ended up with me telling Percy that if he preferred her company he should go and join her before I stormed off. Percy disappeared again after that..."

"He has a knack for that I guess," Piper said gently.

Annabeth nodded solemnly. "Yes, he does. All of a sudden, we get a call from him telling us to meet him in Manhattan with all of the demigods. Kronos was coming, the war was here.

"We went up to Mt. Olympus, hoping to get an audience with Zeus. We found only Hestia and Hermes, who delivered some messages from my mother-some helpful, some...well, just rather awkward-and that discussion led into a rather heated argument about...well, I'd rather not go into that. That's also when I found out that, when Percy had disappeared, he had bathed in the River Styx to achieve the curse of Achilles, invincibility. He and Nico figured out that Luke had been able to hold Kronos because he bore the same curse, and Percy would need to be on an even playing field when he fought him. After that discussion we realized that Kronos had begun his invasion. All of Manhattan had been put to sleep."

"And no one noticed?"

"Magic and the Mist can do wonders for tricking the mortal minds. We split up the forces of Camp, with the Hunters joining us. Percy got the river gods to attack Kronos's ship. I got some mechanic statues to help as well, an invention of Daedalus. Percy had to fight the Minotaur again-gods, that is such a sad statement-and basically fought off a mini army all by himself. Then Kronos came. that was also when I, er, sort of got stabbed by a poisoned knife."

"Sort of got stabbed by a poisoned knife?" Piper asked incredulously.

Annabeth nodded, rolling up a sleeve to show a faded scar. "Somehow I knew it was going to hit Percy's one weak spot and I dove in front of it. Percy got me out of their pretty quickly on Blackjjack and the medics did wonders. I was in pain and a little fuzzy in the head all that night though. Wound like that probably should've kept me out of the fight, but I was back in it the next morning.

"That battle was hard. Percy ended up fighting the titan Hyperion and conjuring a hurricane for the first time." Piper's mouth dropped open. A hurricane? "We also ended up fighting a giant flying pig. Not. Fun. Then the Party Ponies, Chiron's family, nothing like Chiron, helped us out. Rachel, then, made a stunning entrance from a falling helicopter and we had to rescue her. And then...the Drakon came.

"Except this was a very important Drakon, with a certain fate. It could only be killed by a child of Ares, which was unfortunate for us because due to a petty feud, Ares's cabin refused to fight with us. Silena, though, who had recently formed a bond with Clarisse, was convinced she could get them to come, and they did, following Clarisse's lead into the battle with the Drakon, only to have their leader fall." Annabeth swallowed. "But it wasn't Clarisse. It was Silena disguised as Clarisse, and she was dying. And while she was dying, she confessed.

"We had suspected a spy at Camp for quite some while, but we were all stunned to discover it was Silena. She was nice to everyone. Nothing like Drew at all. Silena had become infatuated with Luke before she fell for Beckendorf. He coaxed her into becoming his spy." Annabeth clenched her fists. "I don't care what others say, Silena died a hero and she deserves to be remembered as one. She achieved Elysium. She is a hero."

Piper nodded, promising to argue for Silena's sake the next time Drew talked bad about her.

"Afterwards, we returned to Olympus to try to get Poseidon's help. Percy sat on his father's throne and was able to speak with him. You see, all the gods were currently preoccupied with Typhon, trying to ensure he wouldn't reach Olympus, while Poseidon was currently locked in his own war in his own domain. Percy convinced his father that he needed to fight for his true home in Olympus.

"Kronos was able to go up to Olympus and wreak havoc in the throne room. Thalia was injured and unable to help. Lu-Kronos injured me and when it came down to it, I couldn't help much, except remind him of how he promised me family. Right before Kronos was going to become so powerful he would be unstoppable, right before he would kill Luke, Luke managed to take control of his body just enough to talk to Percy. To ask him, beg him, to give him the blade in Percy's hand, my knife, the cursed blade, the one he had given to me when I was seven. Percy was without his own sword at this point, and giving the blade to Luke would leave him defenseless, but Luke swore he would be able to reach his one weak spot and end his own life, but if Percy tried, Kronos would take over again and stop him. Percy chose to trust him, and doing so, he made the decision that saved Olympus, but, despite what everyone says, he was not the true hero. Luke was. He died to save Olympus. No matter what anyone says, he died a hero, just like Silena."

"And then it was over?"

"The bad parts yeah, Poseidon had managed to take down Typhon and most of the monsters were dead and we were all to be gifted. Tyson was made general of Poseidon's armies. Grover became Lord of the Wild. I became the official architect of Olympus. And Percy...well, he was offered the greatest gift of all. Immortality. They asked him to become a god."

Piper had heard this before, of course, the Aphrodite children were all obsessed with this story and debated on whether it was one of the most romantic gestures ever, or the romantic gesture ever, but she had never fully believed it until right now, until she heard Annabeth confirm it. "And he turned it down."

Annabeth nodded. "Yes. I was so scared. You have no idea. I figured, it was over, maybe Percy and I could finally give it a shot. No more quests. No more prophecies. Just us, trying to figure out how to be an us, and then the gods threw that curve ball at me. My heart dropped down, I thought it had fallen straight to the ground. I wanted to shout at him not to do it, but I couldn't speak.

"And then...he looked back at me. I must have looked like a terrified wreck, but then something in his expression changed and he turned to the gods and he said no." Annabeth tried to suppress a grin, and failed. "No word has ever sounded so beautiful to me before. No. So simple, but it meant so much. In that moment I knew, I knew, Percy turned it down for me. Percy turned down immortality for me." Annabeth said, as if she still didn't believe it. "Instead, he got the gods to promise to claim their children, and to have representation of all the gods, even minor ones. His wish was as selfless as he was.

"Then we discovered Rachel had taken Blackjack to Camp. She went to speak to the Oracle, to take on the spirit of Delphi, and she did. It was then that Rachel gave her first Prophecy."

"The Second Great Prophecy."

"Yes. At the time..." Annabeth started laughing again, but there was no joy in it, in fact, she looked near tears. "We thought it couldn't possibly involve us. That was a Prophecy for demigods decades later to deal with, when we were all old or, more likely, dead. It wasn't going to affect us." Annabeth swallowed, and took a minute to compose herself.

"Later that day, I brought Percy some cake. It was his birthday after all," she said, a ghost of a smile on her lips. Piper knew where this story was leading. She had heard it recounted from many a' camper. "It was a disaster of a cake and we ate it with our finger. Afterward we talked about his birthday and about how he, we, saved the world." Her smile grew. "And he started getting nervous and stammering, telling me about when he was in the styx and he had to focus on one thing to keep him alive, about when he was in the throne room being offered immortality...and, well, he caught me trying not to smile like an idiot and accused me of laughing, saying that I wasn't making it easy for him. I knew what he was trying to do. I told I would never, ever make things easy for him. And then I kissed him.

"Of course, I'm sure you've heard, it was not a private kiss. Soon the whole pavillion was full of campers, and like the idiots they are, they decided it was a smart idea to carry us out to the lake and throw us in. I guess they didn't factor in the whole Son of Poseidon fact." She chuckled, and for once, it looked like she meant it. "I bet they were so shocked when we didn't come up."

She looked up and met Piper's eyes.

"It was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time."


End file.
